Are we any good?

[SWC75]

Colgate is a 3-4 FCS team.

Western Michigan is a 2-6 MAC team.

Purdue is a 2-5 Big Ten team.

Army is 2-5 and just lost to LSU 0-62.

Clemson is 4-3

North Carolina just lost to Virginia, a team that had one in the last year - over and FCS team.

Florida State was behind much of the game to Duke.

Where is the evidence that we've ever been any good this season? I thought we were through the Clemson game, (where we competed well but lost due to turnovers). I hope we are now. I'm looking for something to be impressed with and it's hard. The schedule may be "coming back to us", but these last five opponents are going to be better than those first four.

 

[bigmike]

I, for one, will be tuned in Thursday night to find out.

 

[TheHaze315]

We’ll find out Thursday.

 

[Cuseregular]

Colgate is a 3-4 FCS team.

Western Michigan is a 2-6 MAC team.

Purdue is a 2-5 Big Ten team.

Army is 2-5 and just lost to LSU 0-62.

Clemson is 4-3

North Carolina just lost to Virginia, a team that had one in the last year - over and FCS team.

Florida State was behind much of the game to Duke.

Where is the evidence that we've ever been any good this season? I thought we were through the Clemson game, (where we competed well but lost due to turnovers). I hope we are now. I'm looking for something to be impressed with and it's hard. The schedule may be "coming back to us", but these last five opponents are going to be better than those first four.

Based on the manner of the 4-0 non conference start we can say we’re “good” or at least improved/better but certainly not “very good”.

Too often in the recent past, we barely get by those teams you list above, or even lose one or two. Take away some bad calls and we’re in a couple of those other games where and without them I think we could’ve won the one (Clemson). The other two we are losing regardless, but had those calls not happened I think the momentum taken from beating Clemson and carried over would’ve made those other games at least closer.

A “very good” team overcomes all that, so clearly, we are just borderline good.

So this could have been, and can still be a "good" team with certainty going forward, but the crazy thing about Momentum and sport is the negative momentum from this three-game slide and all that was associated with it, may end up characterizing the whole season sadly as now bad with continued ineptitude, with that continuing on going forward.

We are going to find out just how good the leadership is on this team, both at the very top and within the team itself. Crap out against VT…….then that continues to carry on where we will find ourselves saying about this team, they could’ve been "good", maybe even "very good" at least on paper, but they missed the opportunity.

Come out and end up with seven or eight wins then we know we can definitively call them good. Pull out nine wins? Well then they’ve become “very good” And then the sad thing is we will be saying this now very good team could’ve been "great".

 

[JRHEETER]

In my humble opinion, Thursdays game may be the biggest of Dino’s career.

If they lose, it’s highly likely that the wheels come off of this season, which will ultimately lead to Dino’s dismissal.

If they win, they can save the season.

I don’t think people would be nearly as worried if we didn’t get rocked by both FSU and UNC. If we lose those three games but at least showed that we were playing a football game, this game isn’t as massive.

But unfortunately that’s not the reality.

 

[FasterCuse]

Colgate is a 3-4 FCS team.

Western Michigan is a 2-6 MAC team.

Purdue is a 2-5 Big Ten team.

Army is 2-5 and just lost to LSU 0-62.

Clemson is 4-3

North Carolina just lost to Virginia, a team that had one in the last year - over and FCS team.

Florida State was behind much of the game to Duke.

Where is the evidence that we've ever been any good this season? I thought we were through the Clemson game, (where we competed well but lost due to turnovers). I hope we are now. I'm looking for something to be impressed with and it's hard. The schedule may be "coming back to us", but these last five opponents are going to be better than those first four.

My gut feeling is we're not that good of a team. We've been blown out by the best 2 opponents on our schedule, and based on how Army and Purdue are playing, we should have beaten them by more, if we were a good team. I think we get to 6-6, but against this schedule we should have done so much more. These are the years you need to take advantage of. I hope I'm wrong and we run the table the rest of the way. Either way I'll be at all the home games supporting the team, and watching the away game on the TV.

 

[upperdeck]

Is Clemson any good?

Lost to duke/fsu/miami

beat charleston southern, florida atlantic, Wake and SU

Same can be said for a ton of teams like Kansas/Wisc/USC who all are probably better than us but also havent done much

 

[JKinPhilly]

I think we have the talent to be a good team. I question our mental makeup

 

[HRE Otto IV]

No, we are not any good. However 9 of the teams we play this year are currently ranked worse than us.

In 2013...

We were ranked 62nd

Ws: #236, #91, #113, #86, #73, #64
Ls: #52, #65, #14, #37, #1, #55


We were not any good. But we went 6-6 because we went 6-1 against teams ranked below us. We can easily go 7-5 this year and not be good, beating no one better than us an going 7-1 against those worse than us (similar to 2013).

 

[TheHaze315]

In my humble opinion, Thursdays game may be the biggest of Dino’s career.

If they lose, it’s highly likely that the wheels come off of this season, which will ultimately lead to Dino’s dismissal.

If they win, they can save the season.

I don’t think people would be nearly as worried if we didn’t get rocked by both FSU and UNC. If we lose those three games but at least showed that we were playing a football game, this game isn’t as massive.

But unfortunately that’s not the reality.

That’s what made me change my perspective. Going into the year I thought surely we’d be 4-3 after that vaunted 3 game stretch, did not think it would happen like that however. 3 sloppy beatdowns. All comes down to Thursday.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

In my humble opinion, Thursdays game may be the biggest of Dino’s career.

If they lose, it’s highly likely that the wheels come off of this season, which will ultimately lead to Dino’s dismissal.

If they win, they can save the season.

I don’t think people would be nearly as worried if we didn’t get rocked by both FSU and UNC. If we lose those three games but at least showed that we were playing a football game, this game isn’t as massive.

But unfortunately that’s not the reality.

Why would it be highly likely that the wheels come off? Do we have a bunch of weak minded players? Are they a bunch of quitters?

We can lose to VA Tech and still run the table.

 

[SanDiegoCuse]

I think we are ok. Go 4-1 or better in the last five and we can say we are good.

 

[upperdeck]

in any given year most of the top 30 teams will beat a bunch of pretty avg teams and maybe have 1 one good win.

Thats pretty much how the non elite teams do it. Had we beaten Clemson we would have fit the profile.

 

[SWC75]

The combined record of the first four teams is 9-20 with one FCS and one power conference opponent. The last five teams are 16-19 and are all power conference teams.

 

[Scooch]

 

[storange]

Colgate is a 3-4 FCS team.

Western Michigan is a 2-6 MAC team.

Purdue is a 2-5 Big Ten team.

Army is 2-5 and just lost to LSU 0-62.

Clemson is 4-3

North Carolina just lost to Virginia, a team that had one in the last year - over and FCS team.

Florida State was behind much of the game to Duke.

Where is the evidence that we've ever been any good this season? I thought we were through the Clemson game, (where we competed well but lost due to turnovers). I hope we are now. I'm looking for something to be impressed with and it's hard. The schedule may be "coming back to us", but these last five opponents are going to be better than those first four.

Purdue beat VaTech , but overall yea , I have the same question spinning inside, we’re going to find out. Seeing how bad our O was in the snail offense against FSU I absolutely expect some up tempo Thursday. At least I hope .

 

[Chip]

We're better than when we used to be terrible.

Don't know if we're very good.

But we can still easily have a 9-3 season, which is rarefied air in these parts.

We can also have a 4-8 or 5-7 season, which means we're coach hunting. Been awhile.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

We're better than when we used to be terrible.

Don't know if we're very good.

But we can still easily have a 9-3 season, which is rarefied air in these parts.

We can also have a 4-8 or 5-7 season, which means we're coach hunting. Been awhile.

yeah and again lets see how the last 5 play out not just Va Tech. This game is 1 of 5 left. And yeah any outcome is still possible but there are 5 games left not 1.

We could beat Va Tech and lose the next 4 as well

 

[Chip]

Things could be worse.

https://x.com/nocontextcfb/status/1716877260240879790?s=20

 

[IthacaBarrel]

Things could be worse.

https://x.com/nocontextcfb/status/1716877260240879790?s=20

yep they will be onto another coach after this year. 6th in 15 years.

 

[Newhouser]

I think we win out but I don't think we are good, and won't really convince me by winning out. The league is bad.

 

[cuseincincy]

yeah and again lets see how the last 5 play out not just Va Tech. This game is 1 of 5 left. And yeah any outcome is still possible but there are 5 games left not 1.

We could beat Va Tech and lose the next 4 as well

I agree that every game on the schedule is very winnable. And losable. 2-3 likely gets a bowl and keeps Dino's job. It'll take 4-1 for me to feel it was a successful season. None of the remaining 5 are good teams.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I agree that every game on the schedule is very winnable. And losable. 2-3 likely gets a bowl and keeps Dino's job. It'll take 4-1 for me to feel it was a successful season. None of the remaining 5 are good teams.

and again 8-4 would be the 2nd best season at Syracuse in 22 years. probably would be viewed a bit more than just a "successful season" Call me crazy.

I think we could win or lose any game left on the schedule regardless of how much people want to play the Kevin Bacon game. There's no lay ups no games we can't find a way to win either.

I owned a racehorse than ran 2nd to a Kentucky derby winner in a race, didn't make him a Kentucky derby type horse

 

[djorange1989]

In my humble opinion, Thursdays game may be the biggest of Dino’s career.

If they lose, it’s highly likely that the wheels come off of this season, which will ultimately lead to Dino’s dismissal.

If they win, they can save the season.

I don’t think people would be nearly as worried if we didn’t get rocked by both FSU and UNC. If we lose those three games but at least showed that we were playing a football game, this game isn’t as massive.

But unfortunately that’s not the reality.

This is all accurate

 

[Cusefan95]

I think we win out but I don't think we are good, and won't really convince me by winning out. The league is bad.

…And this is why my answer to “are we any good” is “I don’t care”.

I’d like to see us string 2-3 consecutive bowl seasons together with the same coach, since we haven’t done that in a generation. Then maybe kids that wouldn’t give Syracuse a second look right now would entertain an offer. Being good isn’t a requirement to making bowls - but making bowls consistently will make it easier to become good.